Countdown to IMSA

With the race less than 4 weeks away, things are getting exciting.  I'm feeling confident in the training that's been done, as I've followed a similar approach to that for Kona last year.  This will be IM #5 for me (the years sneek up on you!) and I'm still getting to grips with which is the best approach to races for me.  I'll be doing a 3 week taper, which I feel that my body will need.  Not because I've been doing huge volume in recent weeks, but because apart from my short break in February due to illness, I've been hitting training hard since the start of November, especially on the run.  Plus I'm a cautious athlete, especially when a big race comes along, I'd rather err on the side of too much taper than too little!

Apart from feeling tired after the long days, I've felt pretty good throughout this training phase.  I'm super pleased to have Extreme Endurance supporting me, as my legs have never felt so good post training.  As always, I've been keeping on top of my daily nutrition and without realising it, I seem to have gotten a little closer to a respectable racing weight.  Currently at around 61.5 kg, which is a little less than I was for Kona.  Incidentally, there's an interesting article on Xtri about race weight by Anne Rollins of QT2 Systems, which is worth a read.

The itinerary for SA is all sorted: on Monday 4th April I'll be flying from Seychelles - Johannesburg, then catching an internal flight to Port Elizabeth, arriving on Monday evening.  As I'm only flying from the Seychelles, the time difference is just 2 hours, so there won't be any jet lag to overcome.  It's been really hot here recently, so I'm hoping when I get to SA it will feel cooler by comparison!  I'll fly back on Tuesday after the race, so I'll have a whole 8 days in Port Elizabeth.  I like to generally chill out on race week and spend most of the time with my feet up, so I doubt I'll get up to anything too energetic.  If there's good internet connection I'll get an 'IMSA Daily Diary' going, so you can catch up with the race week gossip!  

6 more days of solid training, then the fun begins with taper time!